After this time the apostle has to give account of himself, and to
accomplish in a striking manner the predictions of the Lord. Brought before
tribunals by the malice of the Jews, given up through their hatred into the
hands of the Gentiles, it was all to turn to a testimony. Kings and rulers
shall hear the gospel, but the love of many will grown cold. This in
general is his position; but there were details personal to himself.
We may remark here a leading feature in this book which has been little
noticed; that is, the development of the enmity of the Jews, bringing on
their final rejection, such as they were. The Acts ends with the last case
presented; the work in the midst of that people is left in oblivion, and
that of Paul occupies the whole scene in the historical narrative given by
the Spirit. The antagonism of the Jews to the manifestation of the
assembly, which took their place and blotted out the distinction between
them and the Gentiles, by bringing in heaven and full sovereign grace in
contrast with law, which while universal in its direction was given to a
distinct people (grace of which the sinner availed himself by faith)-this
antagonism, presenting itself at every step in the career of the apostle,
although he acted with all possible circumspection, is aroused in its full
intensity at Jerusalem, its natural centre, and manifests itself by
violence and by efforts made with the Gentiles for the purpose of cutting
off Paul from the earth. This rendered the apostle's position very serious
with regard to the Gentiles at Jerusalem-a city the more jealous of its
religious importance from having in fact under Roman bondage lost the
reality of it, through its being transformed into a spirit of rebellion
against the authority which crippled it.
After the history of Christianity, viewed as connected with Judaism (in
reference to the promises and their fulfilment in the Messiah), we find
Paul in three different positions. First, condescending, for the purpose of
conciliation, to take account of that which still existed at Jerusalem, and
even addressing the Jews everywhere in their synagogues, as having
administratively the first right to hear the gospel ("To the Jew first and
then to the Greek") for Jesus was the minister of the circumcision for the
truth of God, to fulfil the promises made to the fathers. In this respect
he never failed, and he establishes these principles clearly and
dogmatically in the Epistle to the Romans. We next find him, in all the
liberty of the full truth of grace and of the purposes of God, in his own
especial work from which he condescended in grace. This is recorded in the
Epistle to the Ephesians. In both these cases he acts under the guidance of
the Holy Ghost, fulfilling the Lord's will. Afterwards, in the third place,
we see him in conflict with the hostility of legal Judaism, the emissaries
of which he met continually, and into the very focus of which he at length
threw himself by going to Jerusalem, in that part of his history which we
are now considering. How much was of God-how much was the consequence of
his own steps-is matter for consideration in this narrative. That the hand
of God was in it for the good of the assembly, and in conducting His
beloved servant for his own good in the end, is beyond all doubt. We have
only to search out how far the will and the mind of Paul came in, as means
which God used to bring about the result He intended, whether for the
assembly or for His servant, or for the Jews. These thoughts are of the
deepest interest, and require humble examination of that which God has set
before us to instruct us on this point in the history which the Spirit
Himself has given us of these things.
The first thing which strikes us at the beginning of this history is that
the Holy Ghost tells him not to go to Jerusalem (chap. 21:4). This word
has evident importance. Paul felt himself bound: there was something in his
own mind which impelled him thither, a feeling that forced him in that
direction; but the Spirit, in His positive and outward testimony forbade
his going.
The apostle's intention had been to go to Rome. The apostle of the Gentiles
sent forth to preach the gospel to every creature, there was nothing of
self in this project that was not according to grace (Rom. 1:13-15).
Nevertheless God had not allowed him to go thither. He was obliged to write
his Epistle to them without seeing them. Heaven is the metropolis of
Christianity. Rome and Jerusalem must have no place with Paul, except as to
bearing with the one in affection, and being ready, when he might, to
evangelise the other. Acts 19:21, which is translated "in the spirit,"
only means the spirit of Paul. He purposed, in his own mind, saying, "When
I have been there, I must also see Rome." Afterwards he charge himself with
the offerings of the saints in Achaia and Macedonia. He wished to prove his
affection for the poor of his own people (Gal. 2:10). This was all well. I
do not know if it was a function suited to an apostle. It was an evidently
Jewish feeling, which set peculiar value on the poor of Jerusalem, and so
far on Jerusalem itself. A Jew would rather be poor at Jerusalem than rich
among the Gentiles. Poor Christians were there no doubt from the time of
their conversion, but that was the origin of this system (compare Neh. 11:
2 and Acts 24:17). All this belonged to relationship with Judaism (Rom.
15:25-28). Paul loved the nation to which he belonged after the flesh, and
which had been the people beloved of God and was still His people although
rejected for a time, the remnant having now to enter the kingdom of God
through Christianity. This attachment of Paul to them (which had its right
and deeply affecting side, but which on another side had to do with the
flesh) led him into the centre of Judaism. He was the messenger of the
heavenly glory, which brought out the doctrine of the assembly composed of
Jews and Gentiles, united without distinction in the one body of Christ,
thus blotting out Judaism; but his love for his nation carried him, I
repeat, into the very centre of hostile Judaism-Judaism enraged against
this spiritual equality. His testimony, the Lord had told him, they would
not receive.
Nevertheless the hand of God was doubtless in it. Paul individually found
his level.
As the instrument of God's revelation, he proclaims in all its extent and
all its force the purpose of the sovereign grace of God. The wine is not
adulterated; it flows out as pure as he had received it. And he walked in a
remarkable way at the height of the revelation committed to him. Still Paul
individually is a man; he must be exercised and manifested, and in those
exercises to which God has subjected us. Where the flesh has found its
pleasure, the sphere in which it has gratified itself, it is there that,
when God acts, it finds its sorrow. Yet, if God saw fit to prove His
servant and manifest him to himself, He stood by him, and blessed him even
through the trial itself-turned it into testimony, and refreshed the heart
of His beloved and faithful servant. The manifestation of that in him which
is not according to the Spirit, or to the height of his calling, was in
love for his blessing and for that of the assembly. Blessed is he who can
walk as faithfully and maintain his standing to the same degree through
grace in the path of grace! Nevertheless Christ is the only model. I see no
one who (in another career) so much resembled Him in His public life as
Paul.
The more we search into the apostle's walk the more we shall see this
resemblance. Only that Christ was the model of perfection in obedience; in
His precious servant there was the flesh. Paul would have been the first to
acknowledge that perfection may be ascribed to Jesus only.
I believe then that the hand of God was in this journey of Paul's; that in
His sovereign wisdom He willed that His servant should undertake it, and
also have blessing in it; but that the means employed to lead him into it
according to that sovereign wisdom, was the apostle's human affection for
the people who were his kinsmen after the flesh; and that he was not led
into it by the Holy Ghost acting on the part of Christ in the assembly.
This attachment to his people, this human affection, met with that among
the people which put it in its place. Humanly speaking, it was an amiable
feeling; but it was not the power of the Holy Ghost founded on the death
and resurrection of Christ. Here there was no longer Jew nor Gentile. In
the living Christ it was right. Christ went on in it to the end in order
that He might die; for this purpose He came.
Paul's affection was good in itself, but as a spring of action it did not
come up to the height of the work of the Spirit, who on Christ's part had
sent him afar from Jerusalem to the Gentiles in order to reveal the
assembly as His body united to Him in heaven. Thus the Jews hearkened to
him till it came to that word, and then they cried out and raised the
tumult which caused Paul to be made prisoner. [see note #31]
He suffered for the truth, but where that truth had no access according to
Christ's own testimony: "they will not receive thy testimony concerning
me." It was necessary however that the Jews should manifest their hatred to
the gospel, and give this final proof of their inveterate opposition to the
ways of God in grace.
At the same time, whatever may have been the subsequent labours of the
apostle (if there were any the Holy Ghost does not make mention of them:
Paul sees the Jews in his own house, and receives all who come to him; but)
the page of the Spirit's history closes here. This history is ended. The
apostolic mission to the Gentiles in connection with the founding of the
assembly is concluded. Rome is but the prison of the apostle of the truth,
to whom the truth had been committed. Jerusalem rejects him, Rome imprisons
him and puts him to death as it had done to Jesus, whom the blessed apostle
had to resemble in this also according to his desire in Philippians 3; for
Christ and conformity to Him was his only object. It was given him to find
this conformity in his service, as it was so strongly in his heart and
soul, with the necessary difference between a ministry which was not to
break the bruised reed nor lift up its voice in the street, and one which
in testimony was to bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
The mission of the twelve to the Gentiles, going out from Jerusalem (Matt.
28), never took place, so far as any record of it by the Holy Ghost goes.
[see note #32]
Jerusalem detained them. They did not even go over the cities of Israel.
The ministry of the circumcision was given to Peter, that of the Gentiles
to Paul in connection with the doctrine of the assembly and of a glorious
Christ-a Christ whom he no longer knew after the flesh. Jerusalem, to which
the apostle was drawn by his affection, rejected both him and his mission.
His ministry to the Gentiles, so far as the free effect of the power of the
Spirit, ended likewise. Ecclesiastical history may perhaps tell us more;
nevertheless God has taken care to bury it in profound darkness Nothing
farther is owned by the Spirit. We hear no more of the apostles at
Jerusalem; and Rome, as we have seen, had none, so far as the Holy Ghost
informs us, excepting that the apostle of the Gentiles was a prisoner there
and finally put to death. Man has failed everywhere on earth. The religious
and political centres of the world-centres, according to God, as to the
earth-have rejected the testimony, and put the testifier to death; but the
result has been that Heaven has maintained its rights inviolate and in
their absolute purity. The assembly the true heavenly and eternal
metropolis of glory and of the ways of God-the assembly which had its place
in the counsels of God before the world was-the assembly which answers to
His heart in grace as united to Christ in glory-remains the object of
faith. It is revealed according to the mind of God, and perfectly such as
it is in His mind, until, as the heavenly Jerusalem, it shall be manifested
in glory, in connection with the accomplishment of the ways of God on the
earth, in the re-establishment of Jerusalem as the centre of His earthly
dealings in grace, His throne, His metropolis in the midst even of the
Gentiles, and in the disappearance even of Gentile power, the seat and
centre of which was Rome.
Let us now examine the thoughts of the apostle, and that which took place
historically. Paul wrote from Corinth to Rome, when he had this journey in
view. Christianity had flowed towards that centre of the world, without any
apostle whatsoever having planted it there. Paul follows it. Rome is, as it
were, a part of his apostolic domain which escapes him (Rom. 1:13-15). He
returns to the subject in chapter IS. If he might not come (for God will
not begin with the capital of the world-compare the destruction of Hazor in
Canaan, Joshua 11:11), he will at least write to them on the ground of his
universal apostleship to the Gentiles. Some Christians were already
established there: so God would have it. But they were in some sort, of his
province. Many of them had been personally in connection with him. See the
number and character of the salutations at the end of the epistle, which
have a peculiar stamp, making the Roman Christians in great part the
children of Paul.
In Romans 15:14-29 he develops his apostolic position with respect to the
Romans and others. He desired also to go into Spain when he had seen the
brethren at Rome a little. He wishes to impart spiritual gifts to them, but
to be comforted by their mutual faith, to enjoy a little of their company.
They are in connection with him; but they have their place as Christians at
Rome without his ever having been there. When therefore he had seen them a
little, he would go into Spain. But he was disappointed with regard to
these projects. All that we are told by the Holy Ghost is that he was a
prisoner at Rome. Profound silence as to Spain. Instead of going farther
when he had seen them and imparted gifts, he remains two years a prisoner
at Rome. It is not known whether he was set free or not. Some say yes,
others no; the word says nothing.
It is here, when he had laid open his intentions and the character of his
relationships in the Spirit with Rome, and when a large field opens before
him in the west, that his old affection for his people and for Jerusalem
intervenes-"But now I go unto Jerusalem to carry help to the saints" (Rom.
15:25-28). Why not go to Rome according to the energy of the Spirit, his
work being finished in Greece? (v. 23). God, no doubt, ordained that those
things should happen at Jerusalem, and that Rome and the Romans should have
this sad place with respect to the testimony of a glorified Christ and of
the assembly, which the apostle rendered before the world. But as to Paul,
why put rebellious Jerusalem between his evangelical desire and his work?
The affection was good, and the service good-for a deacon, or a messenger
of the churches: but for Paul, who had the whole west open before his
evangelising thought!
For the moment Jerusalem intercepted his view. Accordingly, as we have
seen, the Holy Ghost warned him on his way. He foresaw himself also the dang
er he was running into (Rom. 15:30-32). He was sure (v. 29) of coming in
the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ; but he was not sure
that he should come with joy. The thing for which he asked their prayers
turned out quite otherwise than he desired. He was delivered, but as a
prisoner. He took courage when he saw the brethren at Appii Forum and the
Three Taverns. There was no journey into Spain either.
All this to me is very solemn. The Lord, full of grace and tenderness, was
with His poor but beloved servant. In the case of such an one as Paul, it
is a most affecting history, and the Lord's ways adorable and perfect in
goodness. The reality of faith is there in full; the ways of grace perfect,
and perfect in tenderness also, in the Lord. He stands by His servant in
the trial in which he finds himself, to encourage and strengthen him. At
the same time, with regard to the desire of going to Jerusalem, he is
warned by the Spirit, and its consequences are set before him; and, not
turning back, he undergoes the needful discipline, which brings his soul
into its place, and a full place of blessing before God. His walk finds its
level as to spiritual power. He feels the power outwardly of that whereof
he had felt the moral power seeking to hinder his ministry; and a chain
upon his flesh answers to the liberty he had allowed it. There was justice
in God's dealings. His servant was too precious for it to be otherwise. At
the same time, as to result and testimony, God ordered everything for His
own glory, and with perfect wisdom as to the future welfare of the
assembly. Jerusalem, as we have seen, rejects the testimony to the
Gentiles, in a word the ways of God in the assembly (compare 1 Thess. 2:
14-16); and Rome becomes the prison of that testimony; while according to
the Lord's promise the testimony is carried before rulers and kings, and
before Caesar himself.
I have said that grace put Paul into the position of Christ given up to the
Gentiles by the hatred of the Jews. It was a great favour. The
difference-besides the infinite love of the Lord who gave Himself up-was
that Jesus was there in His true place before God. He had come to the Jews:
that He should be delivered up was the crowning act of His devotedness and
His service. It was in fact the offering Himself by the eternal Spirit. It
was the sphere of His service as sent of God. Paul re-entered it: the
energy of the Holy Ghost had placed him outside-"Delivering thee," said the
Lord, "from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I now send thee to
open their eyes," etc. (Acts 26:17). Jesus had taken him out from them
both, to exercise a ministry that united the two in one body in Christ in
heaven who had thus sent him. In his service Paul knew no one after the
flesh; in Christ Jesus there was neither Jew nor Greek.
Let us resume his history. He is warned by the Holy Ghost not to go up
(chap. 21:4). Nevertheless he continues his journey to Caesarea. A prophet
named Agabus comes down from Judea, and announces that Paul shall be bound
and given up to the Gentiles. It might be said that this did not forbid his
going. It is true; yet, coming after the other, it strengthened the warning
already given. When he walked in the liberty of the Spirit, warned of
danger, he fled from it, while braving every peril if the testimony
required it. At Ephesus he allowed himself to be persuaded not to go into
the theatre.
The Holy Ghost does not usually warn of danger. He leads in the path of the
Lord, and if persecution comes, He gives strength to endure it. Here Paul
was continually warned. His friends entreat him not to go up. He will not
be persuaded. They hold their peace, little satisfied, saying, "The will of
the Lord be done." And, I doubt not, it was His will, but for the
accomplishment of purposes that Paul knew not by the intelligence given of
the Holy Ghost. Only he felt pressed in spirit to go, and ready to suffer
all things for the Lord.
